Lu Haowen opened his mouth, but finally nodded: "It's good that the emperor understands it in his heart... But I have another question. Since the emperor knows that the Jin army outside the city is attacking the heart and deliberately sending the northern front to a difficult situation, why does he still force the deployment? What exactly do you want to do with Yue Fei? Is it just to replace Zong Liushou and take charge of the affairs of Tokyo? At the moment, Zong Liushou should just be seriously ill, and Yue Fei is not restricted in Tokyo..."
"Mr. Lu." Zhao Jiu sighed. "Chen Gui only told you that the enemy was deceiving, but did he tell you that sitting in the withered city was a way to wait for death? In the current situation in Nanyang, don't we have the new artillery cart as a counterattack weapon?"
Lu Haowen and Chen Gui both lowered their hands slightly, but neither of them refuted anything.
Emperor Zhao also made it clear: "I want to save Han Shizhong... Han Liangchen cannot die! He is my pillar of support! I dare not even think about who will be able to support the situation in the future if Han Shizhong dies in Changsha? Yue Fei is a talented person, but as you said, he is only 27 years old, and swords are merciless. If Han Shizhong can die in battle at a young age, who knows what will happen to him in the future?"
On the city wall, everyone looked at each other in silence, but no one was surprised. According to the government's previous care for Han Shizhong, this reason was absolutely credible.
"It is understandable that the emperor wants to rescue Han Taiwei. Han Shizhong is a great general of the country and must be rescued, but where will the troops come from?" At this moment, Lu Yihao suddenly put his hands together and asked before Lu Haowen. "According to the military intelligence collected by the Privy Council in the past few days, although Wanyan Talan has divided his troops everywhere, he should be stationed at the foot of Changsha City and personally besiege Changsha. In addition, the surrounding troops, from Yelu Mawu in Zhongmu in the north to Pucha Hubalu, Talan's son-in-law in the south, have a total of 40,000 troops, and most of them are cavalry... If the siege cannot be lifted in three to five days, the Jin army will only annihilate the city... A large army is needed!"
"That's right." Lu Haowen also nodded seriously.
"There are 20,000 to 30,000 in Tokyo city and 30,000 to 40,000 in the south of Kaifeng. If we let Li Yanxian abandon Hebei and just defend Shanzhou, maybe he can gather some more. Add to that the remnants of Liu Bao and Tian Shizhong... if we gather them all together, 100,000 is unlikely, but 70,000 to 80,000 is at least possible, right?" Zhao Jiu answered seriously.
"Don't you care about Tokyo anymore?" Minister of War Chen Gui immediately responded in panic.
"If we save the land but lose the people, we will lose both the land and the people. If we save the people but lose the land, we will save both the land and the people." It was Prime Minister Lu Yihao who answered Chen Gui. "Of course, Dongjing City is important, but it is not as important as Han Liangchen... If we save Han Liangchen, even if Dongjing is lost, we will be able to fight back sooner or later! But if we continue to waste time like this, the cities in Wuhe will fall one by one sooner or later. What will we have to protect Dongjing by then?"
Chen Gui was speechless for a moment.
"I have thought about this carefully." Zhao Jiu hurriedly stopped the two from fighting. "Dongjing is only 200 miles away from Changsha, and the Jin army closest to Dongjing is Yelu Ma Wu's army from Zhongmu, with 10,000 men, 50 miles away... Attacking a city and relieving it are not the same thing. If we can gather troops to rescue Han Shizhong and then return to Dongjing to rest, Yelu Ma Wu will not have enough time to capture Dongjing."
Everyone fell into thought again.
But a moment later, Hu Yin spoke seriously: "Your Majesty is right. Han Shizhong is a famous general of our dynasty. We must save him!"
Then, Xiao Lin, a scholar, stopped being silent: "Han Shizhong must be rescued!"
"I also think we should save him!" Yan Xiaozhong, who had been silent all this time, finally bowed without hesitation, regardless of his friendship with Chen Gui. "Otherwise, how can people in the world see the sincerity of the government?"
On the top of the city wall, a prime minister, an internal governor, a prefect of Nanyang, and a chief censor all expressed their agreement with the emperor, and the matter was irreversible.
In fact, Lu Haowen no longer insisted, but bowed and returned to the crux of the matter: "If this is the case, and the condition of Zong Liushou cannot be made public, we can only find a minister to serve as Zong Liushou's deputy, and then supervise Yue Fei to go south and integrate the Tokyo Liushou Division."
"That's the only way." Zhao Jiu was silent for a moment, and finally gave up the possibility of letting Yue Fei directly become the commander, but he was still a little worried. "But I'm afraid that the commander-in-chief in Tokyo and the surrounding areas cannot be given to Yue Fei."
"Don't worry, Your Majesty." Lu Haowen sighed. "I've thought about it and I think there's a good candidate... Now that the deputy governor of Tokyo, Quan Bangyan, is trapped in Huazhou, and the general, Lu Xing, is trapped in Xiangcheng, there are only two candidates left. Your Majesty needs someone to look after Yue Fei, so you have to get rid of Wang Yan who has a grudge against Yue Fei. So there is only one person left, and this candidate is just right."
Zhao Jiu's heart moved slightly, but he didn't have time to think about it, instead he blurted out: "I know who you are talking about. The last person is naturally Du Chong, the former governor of Daming Prefecture and the current prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture... But didn't he escape from Daming Prefecture? Can he be used? Does he dare to fight? I heard that he is a man who kills indiscriminately."
"Sir, the current situation is that there are only a few people with this qualification, and this person is just right for the job." Lu Haowen explained. "The most important thing is that this person is from the same hometown as Yue Fei."
Zhao Jiu suddenly realized that in this day and age, fellow townsmen are a huge guarantee for personal relationships. What's more, and more importantly, the implicit meaning that Lu Haowen didn't say is that most of the military commanders of the Tokyo Garrison were refugees from Hebei. So Du Chong's hometown is also a guarantee for Tokyo. If you replace him with a senior official who is not from Hebei, those military commanders may not be convinced... However, Emperor Zhao obviously had no impression of the name Du Chong, and didn't know what the historical image was, so he quickly turned back to look at Yang Yi Zhong.
Yang Yizhong had no room to interrupt in this situation, but as the official data query tool of Emperor Zhao, General Yang ignored the thin layer of snow on his shoulders and quickly bowed and gave the answer:
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